Party conferences can feel like a bubble, missing the voices of ordinary people with the ideas and experience of turning local pride into real change. Community businesses rebuild pride in place, strengthen local economies, and restore public trust. That’s why we’re attending Labour Conference this year with seven community business leaders – experts working on the ground to tackle the big issues of our time. We want their voices to be heard loud and clear at Labour Conference this year.
Meet our community business leaders:
Charlotte Hollins
Manager at Fordhall Farm (Market Drayton, Shropshire)
Charlotte is the founder and general manager of the Fordhall Community Land Initiative, England’s first community owned farm. Fordhall Farm is approaching 20 years in community ownership, with a membership of over 8,000. Through the farm’s lifetime, Charlotte has supported countless communities to place land into community ownership. She is also one of eight leaders working on the We’re Right Here campaign for community power and, supported by Power to Change, is piloting a community covenant in her hometown of Market Drayton with close to 20 local organisations.
Interested in: Neighbourhood governance, community power, community ownership, rural development.
Craig Pennington
Future Yard CIC (Birkenhead)
Craig is Chief Executive and Co-Founder at Future Yard CIC, a community music venue and music sector skills hub located in Birkenhead, Wirral. Future Yard thinks about music differently; as a transformative opportunity. Future Yard’s model reimagines a community music venue as a space for dynamic social change, providing skills and training opportunities for young people, creative and community development alongside a live programme blending international touring artists with emerging local talent.
Interested in: Urban regeneration, community music venues, opportunities and skills, young people.
Hannah Sloggett
Nudge Community Builders (Plymouth)
Hannah is founder and co-director of Nudge Community Builders, a Community Benefit Society bringing buildings back into use in the Stonehouse area of Plymouth. Motivated by tackling the high vacancy rate on her local Union Street, Nudge has now brought 4 loved buildings back into community ownership with a further two leased for community use, housing local people and small businesses, supporting young people and providing employment opportunities. Hannah is a community champion for the We’re Right Here campaign for community power.
Interested in: Urban regeneration, community asset ownership, combating gentrification, opportunities and skills, young people.
Marie Osborne
Future Wolverton (Wolverton, Milton Keynes)
Marie is CEO of Future Wolverton and helped found the organisation in 2013. Future Wolverton led the Wolverton Town Centre Neighbourhood Plan, a frontrunner neighbourhood plan focused on bringing forward the redevelopment of a 1970’s shopping centre in the heart of our Town centre. The organisation is continuing to progress the community’s vision for Wolverton by taking on empty and dilapidated buildings and using them to create space for the community and local entrepreneurs.
Interested in: Urban regeneration, neighbourhood planning, community asset ownership, financing community-led development.
Sacha Bedding
The Wharton Trust (Hartlepool)
Sacha is a community campaign leader for the We’re Right Here campaign for community power. He leads a small estate-based charity and community anchor, The Wharton Trust, in the Dyke House area of Hartlepool. Built on a community organising approach, The Wharton Trust works with local people to support them to take action on things they care about. This covers a wide range of activities from delivering fun and games to being a social landlord; addressing food insecurity to challenging school exclusion policies which compromise our children’s rights to an effective education.
Interested in: Community power, neighbourhood regeneration, community organising, community-led housing, countering populism.
Liam Kelly
CEO, Make CIC (Liverpool/Birkenhead/Knowsley)
Liam is CEO of Make CIC, an organisation providing workspace and opportunities for creatives across the Liverpool City Region. Born from a need for affordable space for makers and sole traders in Liverpool, Make has now expanded to run three buildings in Liverpool Docks, Birkenhead town centre and Huyton town centre (Knowsley). With support from Power to Change, Make is leading the Left Bank Collective of local community businesses and social enterprises leading the regeneration of Argyle Street in Birkenhead into a hub for creative and independent business.
Interested in: Urban regeneration, community asset ownership, high streets, creative industries.
Jane Dawe
Safe Regeneration (Bootle)
Jane is the Partnerships Director at Safe Regeneration. Starting out as a small creative arts collective in the 1990s, Safe Regeneration has grown to deliver community-led regeneration across Bootle and South Sefton. The organisation now owns and manages a community pub, community business hub (housing 13 other social enterprises) and 7 acres of growing space and public space. As part of the £100 million Bootle Area Action Plan they are working with local partners on a community-led housing and leisure development which will build 147 affordable rent homes, a Creative and Digital Hub and business and leisure units. Jane is also a community champion for the We’re Right Here campaign for community power.
Interested in: Urban regeneration, community asset ownership, community-led housing, community land trusts.
If you’re curating a panel and want practical insight from those making change happen, get in touch with me at lucy.symington@powertochange.org to find out if a community business leader can bring real world experience to your panel.
